The Director General of National Orientation Agency Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu has taken the Agency’s campaign on its recently launched National Values Charter to the Lagos International Festival of Animation, LIFANIMA.
Speaking to more than 120 children during the festival’s Kids’ Fun Day at Animation Park, the DG told the children to imbibe positive habits and commit to being good children so they can grow up to being exemplary citizens.
After the children’s flawless rendition of all three stanzas of the nation anthem, the obviously elated DG said he had confidence that the nation’s future is secured.
At the festival’s Animation Awards which later on the same day, the DG explained the vision and objectives behind the new Federal Government Policy of Nationalisation of Cartoon Content, to stem the current trend which shows that we are breeding new generations of ‘foreigners’, due to the overwhelming influence of foreign cartoons on our children and the disconnection with our core values as a people.
For According to him, animation has become a significant tool for government communication especially as it targets the more than 75 percent youth population of our country. He explained that Nigerian animators could also use this opportunity to tap into the huge budgetary allocation for communication by government at various levels across the various MDAs, noting that the Agency is ready to work with animators.
The founder and festival director of LIFANIMA, Mr. Muyiwa Kayode in his opening remarks explained that the festival began in 2016 after the launch of his animation brand “Turtle Taido” in 2015 which made it the first animated cartoon series for children on Nigerian television. The series had since given birth to the Turtle Taido Game Show which is currently airing Season 6.
LIFANIMA is Nigeria’s premier animation film festival and now one of the top three in Africa. The 2024 edition had 1,106 submissions from 111 countries including 26 African countries.
